First off, let’s just say that this is obviously NOT the only commandment to live your life by (unless Pickleball truly is your only religion). But when it comes to pickleball, this is a biggie.
In this article, I’m going to clear up a misconception about the “third shot” (a.k.a. the return of the return of serve, a.k.a. the first shot your team hits after you serve the ball). On my teaching tours, I have found this misconception to run rampant in the pickleball world. Players from coast to coast, north to south, and newbies to long-time ambassadors all believe that the best shot they could ever hit for the third shot is a drop shot. National champ, Enrique Ruiz says “The drop shot is overrated” and that’s because there’s a big problem with how most people hit a third shot drop shot, and this is what it is: [Read more…] about The First Commandment of the Third Shot (And It’s Not “Hit a Dropshot”)
As much as we all love this crazy sport, occasionally the interpersonal dynamics can make you wish you’d stayed home and not bothered to come to the courts. This topic came up with my recent Bootcamp Breakthrough participants and I wanted to give you some practical solutions to this common problem.
While tennis coaches are at every high school, country club and city park, a good pickleball coach is hard to find. If you’re like most players I work with, you probably learned from a friend or relative and may get occasional pointers from one of the better players in your group, but you probably haven’t worked with a professional pickleball coach.